Covid-19 booster, HPV vaccination drive are primary focus of Health Ministry

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, while commending the work of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), is appealing to medical practitioners to do more to ensure persons take the COVID-19 booster shots. Dr Anthony while addressing the Quarterly Maternal and Child Health Expanded Programme of Immunisation on Wednesday, raised concerns over the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

“We have seen over the last two days, cases have started going up gradually, so we have moved from where we were at four and five cases to now having as of yesterday, over the last 24 hours we have had 42 new cases and today, we have about 52 new cases. We moved from having 0 persons in the hospital to now having 6 persons in the hospital, so what that is telling us, that omicron has not disappeared, that covid has not gone away,” the minister explained. Minister Anthony noted that an estimated 86 percent of the adult population has taken at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while approximately 66 percent has taken both doses thus far.

As such, the minister expressed hope that by June, persons taking the second dose will be at 70 percent, which he said is a target set by the World Health Organisation. Dr. Anthony stressed that while it has been significantly proven that booster doses reduce the risk or severe illness, thus far only 12.3 percent of the adult population has taken the booster doses, noting that vaccination in the adolescent population remains stable. The minister stressed that Guyana has generally been doing well in its general immunisation programme throughout the years.

“We have been doing extremely well, with this vaccination programme, but with Covid-we had various challenges and I think despite of the challenges we have still been able to maintain good numbers,” Dr. Anthony said. The health minister has been given the go ahead by the Cabinet to have the vaccination legislation updated. It was only last updated in 1974, when the country was only vaccinating for six diseases.  There are now 16 diseases.

“We need to amend the law, and many of the other vaccines that we have been giving, while people have been accepting them, it is not really in the law,” minister Anthony said. Dr. Anthony disclosed that one of the major challenges hampering the vaccination programme is the unsuccessful attempts to rollout certain vaccines like the HPV jab, which is critical in preventing cervical cancer, the second leading cancer among women in Guyana.

“When we had the first launch of it, we didn’t really get a lot of uptake and that was because there were lots of misinformation pertaining to HPV. We want to make sure that we roll this out this year, because just like what we have done with covid, there are going to be people who are skeptical, there are going to be people who are misguided, there are going to be people who are spreading misinformation, but despite all of that, you understand the science,” Dr. Anthony explained. Minister Anthony disclosed that there will be an aggressive campaign to roll out the HPV vaccine in all regions this year.

“If we want to eradicate cervical cancer from this country, we have to start now, and I am confident that if we have a very robust programme of vaccination, then in a couple of years’ time we will start seeing the impact,” Dr. Anthony added.